Tag Archives: CoQ10

Dietary supplements are big business. They take in billions of dollars in sales every year. Consequently, with the help of our politicians and news media, the pharmaceutical industry would do anything to protect their market shares.

In addition, prevention is not the main focus of the pharmaceutical industry in the US. The reason is because they don’t make money when we are healthy. The same goes for the politician, i.e. they don’t get contributions when there is no crisis. Also, if the media did its job in reporting about the pharmaceutical industry they would not get the advertising funds from the pharmaceutical interests.

The scenario looks like this:

Over-the-counter dietary supplements are the primary source of competition for the pharmaceutical industry.

In order for the federal government and the medical industry to control health care completely, over-the-counter supplements must be banned or reduced to an ineffective dosage.

With Medicare spending projected to increase to $900 billion by 2018, the Feds are looking for ways to trim cost and dietary supplements are on the Feds’ radar screen as a cost-cutting measure, thus providing more incentive for pharmaceutical interests to gain control of supplements.

The FDA is currently attempting to undermine and re-write DSHEA by re-defining the terms regulating dietary supplements in its new Draft Guidance. NDI (new dietary ingredients) is a side door which provides an indirect way to decimate the dietary supplement industry by increasing the cost to manufacturers in the name of providing a higher degree of “safety” for products appearing on the market after 1994, resulting in increased seizure of products and driving smaller companies out of business. The newer products which could disappear include supplements such as the Ubiquinol form of CoQ10, Resveratrol, Grape Seed Extract, Pycnogenol, Alpha Lipoic Acid, N-Acetyl-Cysteine, Green Tea Extract, etc. Details may be found in the FDA’s “Draft Guidance for Industry: Dietary Supplements: New Dietary Ingredients: Notifications and Related Issues.”

On the international front, the U.S. signed the World Health Organization’s trade agreement, Codex Alimentarius, which may supersede the laws of the countries signing it. Countries not in compliance are considered holdouts and may not be allowed to trade. Codex has the potential to override our DSHEA if the FDA doesn’t undercut it first.

When pharmaceutical interests control the supplement industry, conventional medicine will control health care options.

We depend on supplements to support our health, especially for many who take prescription drugs. A take-over of dietary supplements by conventional medicine is not acceptable.